London Calling
The only 6 days I need to spend in the U.K.
An acquaintance tells you they’re going to London in a year. You say you want to travel the world in a year.
Fast forward one year: you meet in the streets of SoHo on a Friday night, as a wicked dance party is growing outside a local gay bar.
I never would have put London on my list of cities to visit as I was passing through Europe. After living in Los Angeles for the past year and a half, I could only imagine that it was like the U.K. version of that. And it was…
After a sunny, delicious, and awe inspiring Italian Affair, it was kind of a rough change to show up to a much chillier and overcast London climate. I arrived relatively early, so it eventually warmed up by the time I eventually got the awesome YHA Hostel in the heart of the city. The place promoted plenty of great London attractions, had decent wifi, and plenty of clean well working amenities. A welcoming “home” for the week.
You really start appreciating the nicer places you sleep after you´ve stayed in a couple cheap shitty hostels. So if I mention one, it is just because I felt really comfortable and had some travelers peace of mind. It´s worth every last euro...erm, pound?
I managed to pass out pretty quickly after I was able to check in earlier than was usually allowed. (Seriously though, after 24hrs of travel, having to wait for someone to check out so that your bed frees up can be the longest wait of your life.) By the time I woke up, it was time to pull it together. Said acquantance was already out and about, just a short walking distance from where I was staying, so I hit the streets of London with some fresh energy for the night.
The girl was with a friend whom she was staying with and had met the year prior while vacationing in London, a talented local hipster photographer type. We passed through a couple bars and ended up at great sort of lounge over looking the city. I kept forgetting it was Friday night, but then would notice there were people EVERYWHERE, just hanging about in the streets. It was later that my friend pointed out how common this was, people just being in public hanging out and then I started noticing people everywhere just chilling, drinking, chatting whatever.
In-between the loud bar, the speed at which everyone talks in London, the accent and the slang, I definitely felt like we were all speaking different languages. The Italians I had recently met spoke pretty good english, and by that I meant I could hold great conversations without anyone missing anything. But when I got to London, everyone might as well have been speaking French, because I swear, unless I was looking someone directly in the face, I couldn’t understand a thing that was being said…
We weren´t out very late before the night was called. Apparently the London Underground doesn´t run very late, even on the weekend, so I got back pretty early in the night. Not quite a crazy night out, but it was the weekend and I was in SoHo…why the heck was I in bed??
The next day we met up pretty late in the afternoon to wander a bit. Our goal was to check out an exhibit at Hyde Park, but we took a detour to Buckingham Palace first. It was a bit underwhelming, but pretty cool to see. Such an interesting landmark so close to a park where so many people were just lying around in the grass, having picnics and socializing.
We made it to Hyde Park finally, very similar to to something like Central Park in New York. People everywhere, “making sport” and enjoying the afternoon. Vendors, restaurants and a great lake in the middle where people were out in little paddle boats while taking in the scenery. Being later in the day, the sun was at the most perfect position for a magical walk. We never found the exhibit we were looking for, but there was definitely plenty to soak in at this popular weekend spot.
A Couchsurfer I had been in contact with, offered to meet up, so we jumped on a metro and headed to one of the largest malls I have ever seen. It was built just in time for the London Olympics and we ended up using it as our meeting point. Our tour guide took us through Olympic Park, an impressive area just outside of the stadium. Kind of a random adventure on the far east side of London in an area I wouldn’t have really thought to go to without a locals suggestion.
We parted ways with our new friend after walking back to his apartment with him and began the excursion back towards the London city center in the middle of the night.
It was too late for the tube to be running, so my friend and I hopped on a few buses to try and get to where she was staying. What ended up happening was wandering around for a few hours, figuring out where we were and what buses were still running that late. It helped to get to a bus station, and then use the maps there to walk to the next one with no clear idea of where we were heading. We stumbled upon a bad car accident and a fox digging through trash in an alleyway, among other things as we attempted to gain our bearing on our location and find a good route.
Our random adventure finally ended when I got her back to her place close to 3 in the morning and I realized how early we had called it quits the night before. I took a late night bus back to SoHo alone, whose very last stop was mine, the seemingly popular Oxford Circus.
More working the next day (the joys of freelancing on the fly) but I was able to meet back up with my friend and go back to that exhibit at Hyde Park that we were unable to find the day before.
After finding the glorious rainbow space worm (not sure what the exhibit was really called), we made the trek over to Brick Lane, a place that was known to attract a more “hip” crowd and also, according to my friend, THE spot for bomb Indian food. Dinner was great and it was cool to finally eat a real vegan meal.
We parted ways that night for what ended up being the last time we saw each other this trip. It proved to be too difficult to try and coordinate schedules with someone who had an unknown agenda…
I set out on Monday with a strong determination to schedule a new tattoo appointment and the desire to find Russell Brand’s coffee shop. After listening and re-listening several times to his book, Revolution, which I highly recommend, I really wanted to get a good look at the local comedian’s establishment.
As moved by his book as I was, as soon as I found a decent parlor to schedule an appointment for the next day, the gloomy London weather had me defeated. I found shelter at a sweet collection of shops with an AMAZING vegan food spot and great wifi so I could work a bit.
This pop up shop collection called BOXPARK in Shoreditch also had a Moo store! Anyone who has worked with me on branding should know that I love and recommend all things print from these guys. I felt like quite the designerd as I geeked out over paper for a good 15 minutes. Definitely was a cool place to stumble on while wandering around.
As I was sitting at some benches watching a group of kids on those new two wheeled goofy board things, a couple of asian students ran up to me on a scavenger hunt. They asked “are you a hipster?”, apparently trying to check one thing off their list. I said “suuuuuure” since I happened to be dressed in all black, skinny jeans, tattoos showing, working on design work…so cliche… They snapped my photo and ran off to complete their mission.
While this was going on, I got a message on the best app for meeting people for random adventures in new places, Tinder. Yeah, I’ll admit it, this app has been one of the coolest ways to meet up with locals, grab a drink and have good conversation when I’m only in a place for about a week. And at the moment, I found myself in need of companionship and a fresh perspective on this hyped up city.
So the message was from a girl that turned out to be from France. Thank goodness…I could finally understand what someone was saying! She was free for the day from work and looking for a new adventure. So within the hour, as I finished up some work, she had joined me and we headed off to a local pub. We chatted freely and exchanged stories over several pints.
The rest of the day/night is a bit of a blur…but after we ended up back in SoHo to drop off my computer, we grabbed dinner at some restaurant and then met two very entertaining guys in the street. One french guy, spoke absolutely no english, and was out and about with an energetic Italian guy. I don’t know where or when they had met, but they joined me and my new friend for the rest of the night’s shenanigans through SoHo.
We hopped from club to club, dancing and singing in the streets, talking about escargot (in french/english sign language) and taking random photos with different people and things throughout the streets. Our group was acting completely ridiculous (the guys were sitting on each other in the middle of the street like benches at one point) and I think somehow a photo bomb got turned into another giant group wanting us to join them. We also may have been a bit lost trying to find a recommended after hours club and these new people kept pointing us in random directions…
Our boys parted ways with us and the french girl and I wound up sitting on the steps of some old building, eating McDonalds french fries and drinking coffee as the sun came up. Poor thing had to be at work in a few hours, so we said our good byes and I went to sleep away the morning before I had to be at my tattoo appointment. Thanks Tinder for one hell of a night.
The tattoo appointment went well and I spent the whole time reflecting on my trip. London was cool, but expensive, a bit over-hyped, and definitely way too cold for my liking. But it was a good experience to have and I wont ever forget the moments I shared with some amazing people.
I spent the rest of the day packing and showering before taking a night time nap. My flight was an early one, so I had to leave my hostel at 2:30am while it was dark and rainy. While at the bus stop I met a couple more Italians heading back to Italy from holiday and we all made it to the airport just in time for our respective flights.
I don’t think I will ever go back to London. There is nothing for me there and I can’t seem to speak the language so well…haha, but it was worth the adventure and meeting the cool people that I did, even if they were all from other parts of the world. London is one of those cultural hubs and melting pots that attracts some really interesting and talented people. There are a lot of rich things about the city, but it wasn’t really something I could get too excited about. I missed the Italian canals and warm weather the entire time I was there.
Lucky for me, my next stop was having one of the best runs of summer weather that they had in a long while.
I was off to Munich, the magical land of beer gardens, bicycles and...pretzels?
If you like what you read, don’t be afraid to hit the Recommend button. You can follow my adventures through IG: @_MaggieHicks and connect with me on Twitter: @Maggie_Duh.
